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OUR NATIONAL BEOINNINOS 



ADDRESS 



HON. J. HAMPTON MOORE 

Member of Congress, Third District, Pennsylvania 



INDEPENDENCE HALL 

PHILADELPHIA 
Monday, July 5, 1909 









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09 



OUR NATIONAL BEGINNINGS 



ADDRESS OF J. HAMPTON MOORE 

Member Congress, Third District, Pennsylvania 

AT 

INDEPENDENCE HALL 
Philadelphia, July, 5, 1909 



Ladies and CjEntlemen : 

One of the pleasing incidents toward the close of the Constitu- 
tional Convention, which met in Lidependence Hall in 1787, was a 
statement by Dr. Franklin, who, while, the members of the conven- 
tion were signing the Constitution, called attention to a painting 
behind the chair of Washington, which represented a bursting sun. 
Painters had found it ditificult, he said, to distinguish between a 
rising and a setting sun, and he had thought frequently during the 
four months of debate that there was grave doubt whether the 
painting, allegorically applied to our country, represented a rising 
or a setting sun, but now that the convention had put aside its 
differences and had come to an agreement resulting in a Constitu- 
tion for the LInited States, he knew it was not a setting but a ris- 
ing sun. 

There is, therefore, more than usual significance in the presence 
here to-day as the orator of this occasion, of the Ambassador from 
the great Empire of Japan, wdiich, in that country, is called, 
"Nippon," "The Land of the Rising vSun." It is a pleas- 
ure to greet His Excellency, Baron Takahira, upon this, the central 
day and the occasion of American patriotism. In many respects 
the marvelous development of his country, the commercial 
importance of which was first made known to us by Commodore 
Perry, and which brought to us the silk industry through the Cen- 
tennial Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876, has been coincident with 
our own. 



As we exchange fraternal greetings on this day so dear to the 
American heart, we cannot turn the initial pages of history without 
at once observing the great disparity in age between the United 
States and Japan. The land of the Mikado is one of the oldest 
while we are the youngest of all tlic great nations, and the 
difliculties and turmoils through which we liave passed are 
doubtless old, familiar stories to our ciders of European and 
Asiatic countries. But what we are in the way of substantial gov- 
ernment, and of wcaltii in consequence of that government, proceeds 
dircctl\- from this old Hall in which the American spirit first deter- 
mined to free itself from British domination, and in which our 
forefathers of the Constitutional period fcamed the immortal docu- 
meiu tliat made it possible for tis to grow and prosper as a union of 
Slates. 

It was no mean city in which the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was written and prcjclaimcd, and in which the Constitu- 
tion was framed. We were strong socially, commercially and 
financially. No city in all the c<ilouies held greater prestige than 
did Philadelphia, and though there be some wlio criticise it, it is yet 
to be said, after the lapse of a century and a cpiarter, that it has 
maintained itself upon safe and conservative lines and that its 
l)eople in the main have been prosperous and happy. In no city of 
this Union is there so much of historic interest. 

We have the beginnings of most of those things which have made 
the nation great, h'very one of the great statesmen of the Revo- 
lutionary period was in some way or other identified with this 
goodly city, and the memorials of them and their work are still here 
to be revered liy the lovers of their country. In every great move- 
ment in the country's progress we have played a conspicuous and 
a helping part. In the War of the Revolution, in the War of iSi2, 
in the .Mexican War, and in tlie C.reat Ci\ii War. Philadelphia, with 
men and luoney, did its full part. 

In this old I lall. with its Uilierty Pell, now ilu' treasured heritage 
of the Nation, llie di'legates to the Continenial Congress sat, and 
from it they fir^t proclaimed the Declaration of Independence. 
Here, too, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention held 
those long and earnest discussions, which u!tini;itely gave to the 
separate slates a new ;uid lasting bond of union. Within a rifle-shot 
of this spot Jefferson drafted the Declaration, Morris financed the 
Revolution, and Washington resided as Ihc Nation's First President. 
Within that distance is old Christ Church, where ihe Continental 
forefathers worshipped and wlu-re many of the signers of the 
Declaration are buried. .Xroimd ihe corner, at Fom-lb and Arch 



Streets, is the last resting place of Benjamin Franklin, and one 
block nearer is the scene of his experiments with the lightning. 
Nearb}- is the honse in which Betsy Ross is believed to have first 
made the Stars and Stripes. 

In front of this platform is a monnment to John Barry, the 
first Commodore of the American Navy. His bones lie interred 
in old St. ]\lary's Chnrchyard, on Fonrth Street, aliovc Spruce. 
At old St. Peter's a few .steps beyond, lies Stephen Decatur, the 
intrepid veteran of the Mediterranean. "My country," said he, 
"may she ever be right, but, right or wrong, my country." 

From the river bank yonder, John Paul Jones .sailed out to 
fame and glory under the first American flag. It was there, full 
nigh a century before, that William Penn had landed to establish 
this city of Brotherly Love. Here he wrought ; here all our 
illustrious progenitors labored, until liberty and peace were assured 
the people. Over on Walnut Street, within the sound of my voice, 
John ^Marshall, the great interpreter of the Constitution, died, July 
6, 1S35. Then, it is related, the Liberty Bell tolled fur the last 
time. It cracked sounding his knell, and its tuneful life went out 
with that of the great Chief Justice. 

Philadelphia indeed has come to be known as the repre- 
sentative city of homes — the cit}' of good-citizenshi]), of ])eace-loving,. 
domesticated people. The test of the quality of its people 
rests upon its home-life. It has more than .?oo,ooo sejiarale and: 
detached dwellings. What city can boast of such comfort and 
convenience to so great a pr.)portion of its people! It was the 
birthplace of the building assoeiation, which miw encompasses in its 
beneficent operations, more than 2,000,000 of wage-rarners of the 
United States. It has 650 building societies of its own. uitli 170,000 
members, who are paying for their homes through this system of 
thrift. 

Where in the whole country are there savings funds like unto 
those in the city of Philadelphia? Show me the man or the woman 
wdio is keeping within his or her income — even though it be the 
lowdiest wage — and is still laying aside a modicum for the rainy day, 
and I will show you that type of citizenship which well assures the 
permanency of the nation. In one savings fund society alone in 
this city there are 260,000 depositors, whose total deposits aggre- 
gate the enormous sum of $90,000,000. Only 21,000 of those 260,000 
deposits amount to $1,000 or over. In another company $25,000,000 
of deposits represent 54,000 accounts. Ask the secret of Philadel- 
phia's conservatism, and we point to the savings funds, and trust 
companies, and lianks, for the answer. The people prosper here:.. 



they save here. The policeman does not have to stand by to keep 
the savings fund depositor within the law. 

Proud as we are of our city and of all that has gone forth from 
it, we must own to our own weaknesses and annoyances. No 
country in the world has been free from them. All great cities the 
world over are suffering from them to-day. The wonderful awak- 
ening of the Empire of the Mikado after centuries of strife and 
dissension, did not take place until half a century ago. All that our 
enterprise and energy would accomplish may not be secured at once. 
The Declaration of Independence did not bring on immediate 
freedom. It took full seven years to end the Revolution. Men differed 
upon public questions in 1776 and 1787 much as they do to-day. 
Every representative of the colonies in the Congress that adopted 
the Declaration and in the convention that framed the Constitution, 
had previously been a subject of the King. There were nearly 
4,000,000 of people to be harmonized when the Articles of Confed- 
eration failed. Large states and small states were ulierly at var- 
iance. Indeed, if we are to trespass into the secrecy of the proceed- 
ings of the Constitutional Convention, we will find the aristocrat 
fighting with the representative of the plain people; the delegate 
suspected of Tory inclinations struggling with the representative 
who doubted his sincerity. We are told by one of the delegates to 
that convention that there were times during the discussions when 
it seemed that the union of the states was being sustained but by 
the strength of a single hair. What were they discussing then? 
The rights of the states; the rights of individuals; the rights of 
property; the right to hold office; the right to appoint men to office; 
the right of one state over another state; the right of one state to 
tax commodities that came from another state. Oh. there were hun- 
dreds of questions over which the patriots of 17S7 wrangled and 
fought as in a death struggle. 

From that convcnlion two delegates that had been sent from the 
great state of New ^'ork withdrew before adjournment, reporting to 
their Governor that the cau>e of slates' rights was hopeless. Out of 
that convention before adjournment, went Luther Martin of Mary- 
land to report to his Legislature that the lives and liberties of the 
common people were being throttled and that he, for one, would be 
willing to sacrifice his every i)ersonal possession if the country 
could be induced "to reject those chains which are forged for it." 
Back to Virginia too, went Edmund Randolph to report to his Legis- 
lature that his objections to the Constitution were so deep-rooted 
that he refused to sign it. But the country approved the work 
of that convention. The people assembled in the various states, 
voted their endorsement, and in the end, the prediction of Benjamin 



Franklin was fulfilled, the union of states became an established 
fact, and the painted sun behind the seat of Washington was a 
rising and not a setting sun. 

If we had time, it would be more than interesting to compare the 
fears and predictions of those who opposed the adoption of the 
Constitution with the great incidents of subsequent history. In one 
particular some of the objectants were right. Our constitutional 
forefathers were weak upon the question of slavery. They left that 
problem so open that it rankled in the American mind, until Abra- 
ham Lincoln was compelled to cut the Gordian knot ; but the fears 
that a president would become a king, the dread that one state would 
overpower another state, the doubt of the wisdom of a central legis- 
lative authority, or of a central administrative power to enforce the 
laws ; the fear that a Supreme Court would become the mere pup- 
pet of the ai)pointing power — all these seem to have been dispelled in 
the course of time and experience. 

Differ as we may upon questions, constitutional and legislative, 
even to this day; no man can deny that we have been blessed with 
prosperity such as the world has never seen, and an observance of 
law and order such as are the envy of other countries. 

We are the wealthiest nation in the world. We create more 
wealth each year than any other nation. Our debt as a nation is 
less than that of each of the great countries and of many of the sec- 
ondary powers. We cannot contemplate the growth and progress of 
the United States, now extending its population and busy energy 
from ocean to ocean and lakes to gulf, without congratulating our- 
selves that we are citizens of Philadelphia, within whose narrow 
limits the plan of so great a national government was laid. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




